Exorcism, Protection, Healing, Prosperity, Sleep
Constituents: flavonoids, oil, tannins.
Berries contain Vitamin C and iron. Elderblossom works well with Peppermint or Yarrow, as a tea. Action: anti-inflammatory, laxative (especially berries and bark), anticatarrhal, relaxing diaphoretic, hydragogue (inner bark), cathartic (inner bark). Elderblossom is an emollient skin care product. Emetic (inner bark). Diuretic (urinary antiseptic). An ancient household remedy for promoting flow of urine (cold infusion). Expectorant (hot infusion).
Uses: the common cold, influenza, winter’s chills, early stages of fevers with dry skin and raised body temperature. Nasal catarrh, sinusitis. Tonsillitis, inflammation of mouth, throat and trachea (mouth wash and gargle). Night sweats (cold infusion). Chilblains (local).
“The inner bark of Elder has been used with success in epilepsy by taking suckers or branches 1-2 years old. The grey outer bark is scraped off and 2oz of it steeped in 5oz boiling water for 48 hours. Strain. Give a wineglassful every 15 minutes when a fit is threatening. Have the patient fast. Resume every 6 to 8 days.” (Dr F. Brown (1875))
Croup (combined with Coltsfoot – equal parts). Eyestrain, conjunctivitis, twitching: cotton wool pads soaked in cold Elder tea applied to the closed lids, patient lying down.
Preparations: Tea (flowers) 2 teaspoons (2-4g) in each cup boiling water; infuse 5 minutes. Half-1 cup two-hourly for acute conditions. Cold tea is laxative and sedative. Hot tea excites and stimulates. Cold tea soothes and heals chapped hands and useful for sunbathing.
Distilled Elderflower water: for inflamed eyes.
Liquid Extract. 1 teaspoon in water, thrice daily.
Home tincture (traditional). Chippings of inner green bark macerated in white wine for 8 days, strain; for dropsy and constipation.
Ointment. 3 parts fresh Elder leaves. Heat with 6 parts Vaseline until leaves are crisp; strain and store. (David Hoffmann)
Elderberry wine: traditional.
Powder: dose, 3-5g.
Veterinary. “If sheep or farm animals with foot-rot have access to the bark and young leaves, they soon cure themselves.” (Dr John Clarke, Dictionary of Materia Medica)
Habitat: Woods and hedges throughout Europe.
Features ? This familiar small tree, twelve to twenty feet high, has young branches containing light, spongy pith, with a bark that is light grey and corky externally. The leaves are opposite, deep green and smooth. Creamy-white, flat-topped masses of flowers bloom in July, to be followed by the decorative, drooping bunches of purplish-black, juicy berries. Country folk aptly limit our English summer when they say that it does not arrive until the Elder is in full blossom, and ends when the berries are ripe!Part used ? Flowers.Action: Diaphoretic, emollient, alterative, diuretic.
These properties of the flowers are obtained from infusions of 1 ounce to1 pint of water in wineglass doses. It is used, often in conjunction with Peppermint and Yarrow, chiefly for the reduction of feverish colds, but inflamed conditions of the eyes are also found to yield to bathing with the warm Elder flower infusion. Although the medicinal qualities are weaker in the berries than in the flowers, the popular Elder berry wine is widely used as part of the treatment for colds and influenza.An ointment made from the leaves has been of help to sufferers from chilblains.
Health Encyclopedia